How to stand out from other jobseekers as a Healthcare Professional

 You know you are a great candidate for that role – but you’re not the only one.

There has never been as much opportunity across the healthcare industry to start or accelerate your career as a health professional. However, across many of the professions or disciplines competition for jobs continues to intensify.

You may tick all the right boxes in terms of qualifications, you may have a compelling track record to talk about, and you may have a great interpersonal skills. But chances are, so will several other candidates.

What, then, can you do to stand out from the crowd? How can you show that you that you both want and deserve the job more than your rivals?

Here are some strategies based on the success of clients I have worked with :

Prepare for the recruitment process before it even begins:

A large percentage of my clients are now seeking support to skill up not just around the interview itself but how they present themselves in the application process well before jobs are even advertised. In the Healthcare sector this is much easier to do (apart from more specialised roles) as due to the grading system and the transparency around the competencies required for each role, those who want to progress to the next level have access to the information they need to prepare for future roles.

This early preparation strategy has proven very successful for many, particularly those who may have had confidence issues in the past around interviews or who perform best when feel more organised as many competitions once advertised have a quick turnaround

Regularly reflect on and record  scenarios that demonstrate competence

I often share the approach of a client of mine, a Clinical Nurse Manager who had many interview successes an “early preparer” (as described in my first point above) and attributed her success to regular reflection and recording of how she had dealt with "on the job scenarios "where she had demonstrated for example her organisational skills, quality improvement initiative etc. Whenever job opportunities arose, she was able to easily draw on these examples for application forms and interviews.

 Never overlook the practical information

Information overload is regularly attributed to lack of success at interviews. There is a lot to read and take in in terms of the description of the role on offer and around completing the application form. There are usually specific instructions around best practice to completing the form and for those who don’t pay attention to detail; they may find they don’t make it to interview stage as they haven’t complied with the process.

Imagine yourself in the recruiter/ interviewers role

Many of my clients spend hours reviewing what they have written for applications or rehearsing scenarios often without reflecting on why would I be successful here? Read back on your application form and ask yourself if you were shortlisting or interviewing this person; what about what your seeing/hearing would draw you to this application/candidate.

 What difference will you make in this role to the service user?

This is the most relevant question.  As at the end of the day, this is why the job is being advertised. So ask yourself what difference can I make; and it is amazing how all the pieces can come together and you are suddenly aware and more importantly; can articulate how you will stand out in this role

To work with me around any aspect of the recruitment process  click here:https://bit.ly/3B8NmnQ  to find out more about my interview coaching packages.